Exploring Translation Shifts In Decoded:A Novel From The Perspective Of Register Theory

In 2014, Decoded:A Novel written by the Chinese writer Mai Jia was published in the English-speaking countries, and it was selected into the Penguin Classics. Previous studies usually investigate the manipulation in the publication of the translated of the book from a macro-level, concerning more on the social and cultural factors; however, text as the most essential element in the whole process is not given equal attention. Therefore, this thesis aims to bridge the gap between the macro-level of sociocultural context and the micro-level of discourse analysis with the help of an integrated model proposed by Munday. The register theory derived from Halliday's systemic functional linguistics is used for analyzing the translation shifts in the text and Andre Lefevere's manipulation theory for explaining the motivation of the translation shifts. The thesis attempts to answer the following two major research questions:1) what are the translation shifts exhibited in the transitivity and voice, modality and the cohesion? 2) what are the possible motivations for these translation shifts? After analyzing the translation, the thesis has two findings. First, translation shifts in the translation can be observed in the change of voice pattern, the use of modal verbs and adverb, and the lexical cohesion. The translators seem to follow a non-systematic translation strategy when changing the voice pattern in the translation. It seems that the strategy is used to ensure the cohesion of the discourse rather than showcasing the translator's personal ideology. In terms of modality, the translators tend to use modal words with high value or degree to intensify the emotion expressed in the text. The translation shifts also appear in the translation of the culture-loaded words, but no paratexts such as footnote are used to further explain these ideas. By analyzing ellipsis, it can be found the omissions are usually made out of poetic reasons:to make the explanation with less redundant and more reader-friendly. Second, professionals (here refers to the translators) as part of the patronage, integrate their life experience and academic background in their work, giving rather positive modal words in the description of the protagonist. The concise style and domestication translation strategy employed in the translation are very likely the results of the dominant poetics (fixed genre), since the novel is categorized as a spy novel to be sold in the western market. It is supposed to be easy to read and reader-friendly, therefore lengthy footnotes are not welcomed.